CenturyLink Call Center in Gig Harbor to Close

announced Thursday that it will be closing Gig Harbor's care inbound call center and relocating all 52 employees to central Oregon.

According to Jan Kampbell, spokesperson for the Western Washington region, the closure will affect 45 inbound customer care representatives, 2 administrative support staff, 2 managers and 3 supervisors.

The closure was announced due to the fact the building in Gig Harbor didn't provide enough room for growth, Kampbell said.

"After a long period of evaluating our factors that included operational costs, location and available space for growth. A closure is part of our effort to improve our customer service, reduce costs and improve our operational efficiency," she said.

"Here in Gig Harbor, our call center can only employ up to 60 employees, and a cost-efficient call center location should be able to hold around few hundred employees or more."

CenturyLink, which is the third largest telecommunications company in the country, said it will be providing a relocation package to those who opt to relocate and a severance package to those who don't wish to relocate.

The company's existing call center in Medford, which currently has 125 employees, can hold up to 300 employees, Kampbell said. The 52 call center jobs will be moved there. 

CenturyLink will leave its remaining 73 positions in Gig Harbor intact. The call center closure will take effect Friday, April 27.